Table 2. Z-values previously described for microorganisms, 99% or 95% represent the taxonomic resolution applied for definition of the OTUs (sequence similarity).

Microbial Community	z-value	Diversity Access	Habitat Org.	Reference
Desert Soil Fungi	0.074	fingerprint (ARISA)	Contiguous	[19]
Salt-Marsh Bacteria (99% OTU)	0.04	sequencing	Contiguous	[18]
Salt-Marsh ß-proteobacteria (99% OTU)	0.019	sequencing	Contiguous	[18]
Salt-marsh Bacteria (95% OTU)	0.019	sequencing	Contiguous	[18]
Salt-Marsh ß-proteobacteria (95% OTU)	0.008*	sequencing	Contiguous	[18]
Water-filled tree holes Bacteria	0.26	fingerprint (DGGE)	Island	[20]
Metal-cutting fluid sump Bacteria	0.26-0.29	fingerprint (DGGE)	Island	[38]
Soil Bacteria	0.03	Fingerprint (T-RFLP)	Noncontiguous	[39]
Tropical Forest Soil Bacteria	0.42 and 0.47	Fingerprint (T-RFLP)	Contiguous	[40]
Freshwater lake sediment Bacteria	0.009	fingerprint (T-RFLP)	Contiguous	this study
Freshwater lake sediment Archaea	0.0155	Fingerprint (T-RFLP)	Contiguous	this study
Freshwater lake sediment methanogenic Archaea	0.016	fingerprint (T-RFLP)	Contiguous	this study

*not significant different from zero.